Research article
Cigarette use by college students in smoke-free housing: Results of a national study

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Abstract

Background: Cigarette-smoking rates have increased in recent years among college students. Smoke-free residences offer a possible means of reducing or preventing smoking. However, their use has as yet not been evaluated. This paper examines whether students residing in smoke-free residences are less likely to smoke cigarettes than students in other campus residences, and if such lower rates apply to all types of students and colleges.

Methods: The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study surveyed a nationally representative sample of college students at 128 U.S. 4-year colleges regarding tobacco use and related behaviors in the spring of 1999. The responses of students living in smoke-free and unrestricted residences at 101 campuses were compared.

Results: Current smoking prevalence was significantly lower among residents of smoke-free housing (21.0%) as compared with residents of unrestricted housing (30.6%, p<0.0001). The lower rate of current cigarette use was consistent with all types of student and college characteristics with few exceptions. Current cigarette use was significantly lower for those living in smoke-free housing than for residents of unrestricted housing among students who were not regular smokers before age 19 (10% vs 16.9%, p<0.0001), but not among students who smoked regularly before age 19.

Conclusions: Smoke-free residences may help protect those students who were not regular smokers in high school from smoking in college. However, the difference in smoking rates may be due to self-selection of students into smoke-free residences. Since smoke-free options also protect students from secondhand smoke and dormitory fires, colleges should provide these types of residences for all students who request them, and should also encourage others to choose them.

Introduction

S moking rates among young adults appear to be rising.1, 2 This may be a cohort effect involving an earlier rise in tobacco use among high school and middle school students.3 It may also reflect newer tobacco industry marketing efforts that target young adults (aged 18 to 24), because young adults and college students in particular are the youngest legal targets for tobacco marketing. Whatever the cause, tobacco use among this age group deserves attention. Approximately one third of young adults attend college. Although fewer college students smoke than non–college-attending peers,3 cigarette-smoking rates have risen in recent years among the college population.3, 4 Colleges provide a natural site for interventions to reduce tobacco use among young adults, but little is known about how to discourage tobacco use among college students.

One approach that has been implemented on some campuses is to provide smoke-free dormitories. The use of smoke-free areas has been promulgated to reduce the secondhand effects of smoking.5 It can also serve as a preventive tool by limiting the opportunity and time for smoking, by reducing the presence of smoking role models and the strength of peer pressure to smoke. In a 1999 survey of college health directors,6 the Harvard School of Public Health Survey found that 27% of 4-year residential colleges prohibited smoking everywhere on campus, including living areas in dormitories. An additional 55% of colleges banned smoking in all public areas, allowing it only in private living quarters. Smoke-free policies in workplaces, which were adopted to protect nonsmokers from the hazards of environmental tobacco smoke, have proved to be effective in reducing employees’ daily cigarette consumption and promoting cessation.5 Among college students, state and local community smoke-free policies have been found to reduce smoking.7 The effect of smoke-free residences on college students’ tobacco use has not been examined.

This paper uses data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. 4-year colleges to examine the relationship between students’ choice of housing and their use of tobacco products. Our hypothesis is that smoke-free dormitories protect students from becoming regular smokers and reduce the daily cigarette consumption among regular smokers.

Section snippets

The college and student sample

This report is based on the 1999 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS). The 1999 CAS was conducted at 128 4-year colleges located in 40 states and the District of Columbia. From a list of accredited 4-year colleges provided by the American Council on Education, an original sample of 140 colleges was selected in 1993 using probability sampling proportionate to the size of undergraduate enrollment at an institution. Administrators at each participating college provided a

Smoking prevalence

The overall rate of current (past 30 days) cigarette use was 26.8% (Table 1). Among those, three out of five (58.3%) started smoking regularly before the age of 19. Current smoking prevalence was significantly lower among residents of smoke-free housing. Two of ten (21.0%) residents of smoke-free housing were current smokers compared to three of ten residents of unrestricted housing (30.6%, p<0.0001). Students in smoke-free residences were also less likely to have ever smoked and to have smoked

Discussion

College students who live in smoke-free floors or dormitories are less likely to be current smokers of cigarettes and cigars than their counterparts residing in unrestricted residences. The lower rates observed in smoke-free residences apply to most types of students and occur at nearly all types of colleges. However, the lower rates apply only to those students who were not regular smokers before reaching age 19. Among students who do smoke cigarettes, those living in smoke-free dorms smoke as

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mark Seibring for help in the preparation of this manuscript. The Harvard School of Public Health Human Subjects Committee (IRB) gave consent by exempting the study on 23 November 1998. The study was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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